Letters to the Editor

Baby Talk

I just wanted to say thank you for not writing an article that devours and makes the Adult Babies/Diaper Lovers [ABDL] fetish look completely disgusting [Paper Doll, "Cradle of Love," Ashlea Halpern, Oct. 19, 2006]. Your understanding approach toward the article is one that very few reporters would take.

Name Withheld
Via E-mail

I practically ran to the City Paper box on the corner outside my office yesterday in anticipation of your column, and I was not let down. I'd like to thank you for the attention you gave me.It's rare, in my experience, for someone not directly involved with this fetish to be so open in wanting to know more about it. The way that you portrayed me and people like me in your column was so great. It felt nice to have that sort of exposure without being the butt of a joke.

"Miguel"
Montgomery County

I just returned from Penn, where my daughter is a first-year grad student. [Officer Floyd] Johnson made my day! I hadn't seen a traffic policeman with his moves in a long time [Naked City, "One Way, or Another," Rod L. Wilson, June 8, 2006]. I realize I am responding to an article that is dated, but I hope you will pass our praise along, nonetheless.

Sandra Kronick
Knoxville, Tenn.

I enjoyed your article on the NFDA. I went to many of the same sessions as you did, in fact. I guess you saw for yourself that covering the death care industry really isn't all that bad.

Thomas A. Parmalee
Associate Editor, American Funeral Director

Having attended a few of these goulish galas while working for Jessica Mitford as her researcher for The American Way of Death Revisited, most of [your] impressions reflected the way I viewed the "Men In Black." It is a wonderful piece.

Karen Leonard
Willits, Calif.

[Cover, "Merchants of Death," Ashlea Halpern, Oct. 26, 2006] was quite an enormously gross and evocative virtual tour of the NFDA trade show environment and I thank you for it. As a "supplier" who is not an exhibitor, it would have cost me several hundred dollars to walk through the door — a move I've resisted since creating [my] unique funerary arts agency in 2000. You have described a trip that is not easily taken by the rest of us. I applaud your expertise in writing so vividly about your experience.

Maureen Lomasney
President/CEO, Funeria LLC

I wanted to commend you for [Cover, "Horse Country," David S. Barry, Oct. 19, 2006]. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your very human and poignant description of substance abuse.It's clear that you researched the issue and it's even more clear that you were affected not just as an author, but as a person. As a graduate student in criminal justice at Saint Joseph's University, I hold a scholarly interest in drug and alcohol abuse and look forward to more of your writing and hopefully a follow-up piece.

Ryan Murphy
Bryn Mawr

While I am happy the paper prints stories like this, I find myself not caring about the white kids of privileged neighborhoods who OD because they are bored. Did we all think kids like that were going to stay clean and pristine till they made it out of college and became shady lawyers, corrupt politicians and uncaring CEOs like their parents? I mean think about it, these kids get afterschool jobs to support their addiction while kids from my neighborhood can't get the same fry-slinging job, so they have to revert to selling the rich kids their fix.

Those kids have everything most of us Philly kids dream about and they come here just to cop hard, addictive drugs. I think Philly should stop worrying about its neighboring counties and start trying to fix what has let our youth down in the city.

Jessica DeAngelis
Frankford